Tom Lee Music will vacate its longtime space on Granville Street, between Nelson and Smithe streets in April and move up the street to a second-storey location at the corner of Granville and Georgia streets.
The company has been in a 90,000-square-foot building at 929 Granville Street that its sister company, Soco Investments, sold to Bonnis Properties last April.
The musical instruments, sheet music and music-lesson company's total occupation at 929 Granville Street totalled about 20,000 square feet, vice-president Graham Blank told Business in Vancouver on January 11.
Its new space, in the Vancouver Centre Building, is about 14,000 square feet. The company will separately lease 2,500 square feet for administrative space at 650 West Georgia Street, Blank said.
BIV first suggested that this move would take place in a story suggesting many projections for the retail scene in Vancouver in 2017.
Other tenants at 929 Granville Street include EF International Language Centre and the Arthur Murray Dance Studio.
With Tom Lee Music vacating the first three floors of 929 Granville, the space is expected to open up to new retailers. The street-front space in the building is large enough for five separate retail units.
“We’ll have increased street-front visibility from a signage perspective,” Blank said of his new space, which will be accessible via an escalator just south of the Starbucks.
“There’s about ten times the traffic at the corner of Granville and Georgia, at least, than the 900 block of Granville.”
Blank said that the key reasons that Tom Lee Music is moving are that the new space:
•is at a more visible location with more traffic;
•is in the heart of downtown, which is where the company’s customers are; and
•is closer to parking lots.
“We’re thrilled that Tom Lee Music will be staying downtown,” said Charles Gauthier, who is CEO of the Downtown Vancouver Business Improvement Association.
“Tom Lee Music is a major retail, tourism and employment destination as well as an anchor tenant on the iconic Granville Street.”
